Free Web NovelChapter 17: Frontier Academy
Silas had been utterly exhausted after the test. For the first two days aboard the shuttle, he did little besides sleep, waking only to eat before collapsing back into bed.
It was not until the third day that he finally left his cabin. The first thing he saw was Darius enthusiastically chatting with three teachers as though they had known each other for years.
"Aha! The star of our team finally wakes up."
The moment Darius spotted him, he jumped to his feet, grabbed Silas by the arm, and pulled him over.
Despite everything that had happened, Darius seemed as energetic as ever. One would never have guessed he had recently survived a brutal battle or watched most of his teammates die.
Silas exchanged a few polite words with the teachers before Darius immediately began explaining the situation.
"We’ll arrive at the academy tomorrow. The teachers will submit their reports first, then we’ll attend an introduction ceremony with all the other survivors. That’s where they’ll announce our rankings."
Darius spoke so quickly that it was difficult to keep up. Then he suddenly snapped his fingers.
"Ah, right. I almost forgot."
He handed Silas a sleek wristwatch.
"What is this?" Silas asked.
"It’s issued to every official student," one of the teachers explained. "Class schedules, assignments, announcements, academy notices... everything goes through it."
Then the teacher’s expression became noticeably more serious.
"Speaking of which, there’s something we’d like to ask you."
Before the teacher could continue, Darius interrupted.
"They want to know about your ability." freewebnøvel.com
He mimicked one of Silas’ throwing motions.
"The way you accelerated those daggers was incredible."
Silas remained calm.
’So they had noticed.’
He had hoped their attention would remain focused on Vaelous and the events surrounding the attack of the Dark Hunters, but he had prepared for this possibility already.
"I honestly don’t know exactly what happened," he said after a moment of hesitation. "My ability is related to wind. It can increase speed and improve movement. During the test, I tried applying it directly to my daggers instead of people, and it somehow worked. Beyond that, I don’t really understand its full potential yet."
He paused before adding:
"I grew up in an orphanage. I never had anyone to teach me about abilities or enhancement."
The explanation mixed truth with carefully chosen omissions. The teachers exchanged meaningful glances, as if the answer came a bit different than what they had in mind.
For a moment, Silas thought they might press further. Instead, one of them smiled.
"Don’t worry. That’s exactly why Frontier Academy exists. You’ll learn far more about your ability once your studies begin."
Soon afterwards, the teachers excused themselves and departed. The moment they were gone, Darius leaned closer.
"Don’t thank me, but make sure to lay low for a while."
Then he walked away before offering any explanation. Silas watched him leave and sighed inwardly. His friend had been acting strangely ever since the conversation began.
’Lay low?’
The words lingered in Silas’ mind long after Darius had left.
The next day, Silas finally arrived at Frontier Academy.
He stood before a colossal metallic gate that towered more than twenty meters into the sky. The gate was embedded within an immense wall built from dark blue ore and weathered brown stone, both rising to the same daunting height and stretching far beyond the limits of sight.
He was not alone. Beside him stood Darius, the only other survivor of their team.
After being transported by a small shuttle, the two had been left outside the academy while the ten accompanying teachers passed through the gates. Strangely, the teachers seemed to vanish the moment they crossed the gates. Before leaving, they had explained that it was standard procedure. They would submit their reports and assessments while the successful candidates waited outside.
Silas and Darius had already handed over their backpacks, along with every monster core they had gathered during the admission test. Their backpacks were labelled with their tag names, so Silas wasn’t worried about someone switching the bags.
Fortunately, they were not the only ones waiting outside the closed gates.
By the time they arrived, more than a hundred and fifty youngsters were already gathered before the gates. They stood in scattered groups of varying sizes, though none had the seven members with which the teams had originally begun. Some groups consisted of a single survivor, while the largest numbered six.
Silas did not need to ask what had happened. The academy’s admission tests were ruthless, which sounded fair. As he silently observed the crowd, Darius suddenly moved.
"I’ll go talk to the others," he said after noticing Silas’ questioning gaze. "Looks like we’ll be waiting for a while. Might as well make some friends. Want to come?"
Silas declined with a slight shake of his head. Darius immediately wandered toward the nearest group, introducing himself and eagerly sharing stories about the test. Before long, a large crowd had formed around him as candidates exchanged experiences and compared hardships.
Silas listened from afar. He was not the only one keeping his distance. Dozens of others remained on the outskirts, seemingly uninterested in joining the conversation, though most still paid close attention to every word being spoken.
At first, the stories were somewhat interesting. Every team had faced tough situations, but all had suffered losses and endured relentless attacks from monsters. Yet as the conversations continued, Silas gradually lost interest.
Many spoke about the Stone Frogs and Fiery Hounds as if they had faced impossible horrors. To Silas, those creatures had been among the least dangerous threats encountered during the trial.
If the test had consisted solely of fighting such monsters, it would have felt almost relaxing compared to everything else he had endured.
’Still, they faced the same monsters we had, and still they dare to call their experience scary and impossible?’
Silas inwardly shook his head.
’Even so, most of them had lost friends and teammates.’
Silas’ gaze lingered over Darius for a few moments, recalling how his friend was devastated and still was after the loss of their teammates.
Eventually, he stopped listening altogether and turned his attention elsewhere. Around forty candidates remained separated from the main crowd. Most stood alone or in small groups, but one gathering immediately caught his attention.
More than ten youngsters stood together. That alone was quite unusual. Silas’ full attention settled on the group. Something felt off about them, yet he could not pinpoint what it was. And soon afterwards, someone from Darius’ group pointed toward them.
"Them?" the boy said with obvious surprise. "They’re G-Enhancers. Most come from families and clans that already have Enhancers among their ranks. Some are even direct descendants. They knew exactly what to do throughout the entire test."
The words sounded like praise, though the envy beneath them was impossible to miss. As if sensing the attention, several members of the group lifted their chins and straightened their backs with barely concealed pride.
Silas found the display uninteresting. And yet, he finally realised where the wrong was in that group. Unlike others, they wore a unified uniform, one that, when he looked closer, had the academy emblem on their chest.
When he looked closer, he noticed the watches they wore looked a bit different. It felt like the versions they had were more advanced than the ones he received from the teachers and the academy.
’Rich and authoritative... The type who can easily dominate any place they are.’
Silas narrowed his eyes, feeling like this group was the most likely to dominate the rankings
’From everything I had overheard, no other team seemed to have encountered Dark Hunters.’
Silas didn’t feel any pressure, as he knew if things went right, his ranking would be quite high. Thanks to the loud talk of Darius’ group, he learnt that the academy placed high importance on the ranking. Those in higher ranking received more resources and care than others.
Yet before he would shift his gaze away, his eyes met with someone. That youngster stood perfectly still amidst the crowd. While the other G-Enhancers flaunted their status, he seemed entirely indifferent to the attention..
Silas didn’t know why, but the brief moment of locking eyes with that G-Enhancer made him feel some pressure.
’Interesting!’
Silas took a mental note of that kid, before he looked away and kept analysing other youngsters and listening to more stories.
The wait outside the academy lasted nearly half a day.
More teams continued arriving, and Silas observed every reaction imaginable. Some candidates looked excited; others appeared confused. And a few still seemed trapped within the grief and trauma left behind by the test.
Watching them only reinforced a thought that had crossed his mind countless times already.
’The academy’s methods were unnecessarily cruel.’
As the hours passed, the number of gathered candidates eventually exceeded two hundred. Every arriving group followed the same pattern; the teachers left the survivors behind, entered through the gates, and vanished without a trace.
Silas also noticed something else. No team arrived with more than four accompanying teachers. That detail revealed quite a lot about the academy’s special arrangement against Vaelous and his accomplices.
An hour after the final group arrived, the massive gates finally opened. A teacher stepped forward and addressed the waiting crowd.
"Follow me. The introduction ceremony awaits."
Darius immediately left the group he had spent the past several hours entertaining and joined Silas. Together, they followed the crowd toward the open gates.
The moment they crossed the gates, the world around them vanished. Then a breathtaking sight unfolded before their eyes.
The Frontier Academy stood before them in all its majesty.
